Past Exhibits

Word and Image: the Poetry of Robert Lima

Opening: Sunday, April 2nd, 12:00-4:30 p.m. Dr. Robert Lima will be reading from CELESTIALS at 3:00 p.m. As always, Free & open to the public.

The exhibition will include 20 - 25 poems and a variety of images, some painting and some photography, that will illuminate the subject of the poem. The poetry is by Robert Lima and the accompanying art works are by many different artists and by Lima using several mediums.

Dr. Robert Lima is a poetry professor at the Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania. Lima composes poetry and illustrates his words with his photographs and sometimes the work of other artists. Lima has published nine books of poetry, he had been published in many journals and on-line periodicals and has been awarded numerous prizes. At the museum, Dr. Lima will share his created works in words as well as images. Some of his poetry will be accompanied by photography by other artists and colleagues.

Lima began writing poetry as an undergraduate at Villanova University and spent some time in Greenwich Village as a poet. He is a Professor Emeritus of Spanish and Comparative Literature and Fellow Emeritus, Institute for the Arts and Humanities Studies, Penn State University. Lima has been recognized for his contributions to language and poetry and was named Knight Commander in the Order of Queen Isabel of Spain by his Majesty Juan Carlos. He is Academician of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language and a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy.

Windows on the World Gallery - 1st Floor

Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays 12:00 to 4:30 p.m. Or By Appointment

Mar 31thruApr 29

Courtney Desiree Morris in the Photography Gallery

Artist Statement: My work examines the complexities of place, ecology, memory, and the constant search for “home.” Specifically I am interested in understanding the ways that we inhabit place – through migration, ancestry, and shared social memory -- and how place inhabit us. This interplay between landscapes and human subjectivity is evident in the ways that I use my own body as a staging ground for re-membering my families’ experiences of loss, dispossession and the persistent struggle to make a place for oneself in the world. I am particularly interested in examining these questions through the experiences of female ancestors and elders whose stories are often disappeared in both family histories and official historical narratives.

My first collection, Soil, reconceptualizes my paternal family’s relationship to the agroindustrial landscapes of south Florida, specifically the sugarcane fields surrounding Belle Glade, which attracted thousands of labor migrants from the Anglophone Caribbean from the mid-1950s through the 1980s. This work serves as a meditation on the fraught connections between blackness, labor, migration and the multiple afterlives of slavery throughout the African Diaspora. In one sense, the work is an effort to excavate the stories of Caribbean labor migrants whose labor in the cane fields has gone largely unrecognized in the region’s history. Beyond that, however, the project attempts to recognize the kinds of sacred memory that links historical continuities between contemporary labor migration and colonial systems of enslaved labor in the process of industrialized sugar production. As one of the first truly global commodities, sugar has played a central role in the making of the modern world. Soil attempts to re-narrate that drama by focusing on the stories of everyday workers, past and present.

I am essentially a conceptual artist and I work primarily in the fields of photography, experimental video installation, and performance art. I am drawn to these mediums because of the ways that they allow me to engage and play with my family’s history by performatively inhabiting the stories of my childhood and imaginatively filling in the gaps where “facts” are either unknown or in dispute. Photography and video are critical tools for providing viewers with a deep sense of place and historicity that defines all of my work. Alternatively, performance functions as a kind of time-traveling technology where I can revisit and restage sites of ancestral memory, interrogate the present, and imagine new kinds of social and environmental futures.

Photography Gallery - 2nd Floor

Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays 12:00 to 4:30 p.m. Or By Appointment

Mar 3thruMar 26

Beverly Klucher in the Community Gallery

Artist Statement: "At this point of my career, I find it natural to say I love what I do. I have been oil painting for 40 years and still find joy in bringing back to life visually a fulfilling moment. Whether the image is landscape, coastal ,religious or portrait, each offers a unique light and color that challenges my perception. The present exhibition, "HEART OF PENNNSYLVANIA" is a collection of paintings inspired by a childhood recollection of living in England long enough to instill a - sense of place - in my own heart."

Bio: Beverly, born in Portland Oregon, grew up second of six children in a close-knit military family, where moving around the country and overseas was normal. During her adolescence, her parents, family and teachers encouraged this aspiring artist to pursue her talent. The seed of encouragement grew.

A 1978 Fine Arts Graduate from The Pennsylvania State University and graduate work at Penn State and The Maryland Institute of Art, both contributed to the artist's strong emphasis on oil painting. In 1980, Beverly began her professional career working from her home studio, while working part-time as an Archival Framer, and raising her family with her husband Bill. Her husband, children, and grandchildren remain her most cherished part of her success in her art.

Presently, Beverly's studio is filled with paintings in various stages of development. Her passion for life is reflected in the stroke and perception of light in all of her work. She welcomes people into her studio. A call to make an appointment is appreciated by the artist. Commission paintings are special in their own way. This affords the artist an opportunity to work with the client one on one. "To see a smile on their face when the job is done is amazing" - comments Beverly